The present invention relates to an apparatus for binding a bundle or stack of paper sheets such as paper money by a binder tape or band.
In some industrial fields, it is practiced that a plurality of stacked paper sheets are bound by winding a binder tape therearound. For example, it is known that a predetermined number of sheets of paper money are bundled in this manner. In this connection, with a view to obtaining a positively and securely wound bundle of the stacked paper sheets to thereby prevent the wound stack from becoming loosened, one end of the binder tape is inserted into the paper stack and the tape is wound around the stack in a desired number of turns. After the paper stack has thus been wound, the tape is cut and the trailing end thereof is bonded to the wound tape portion. For the insertion of the leading end portion of the binder tape in the paper stack, a gap or space for receiving the tape end has to be provided in the paper stack. To this end, a pin-like member has been conventionally employed and forceably inserted into the paper stack through manual operation or in an automatic manner. Thereafter, the tape end portion is inserted into the stack as guided by a thin plate. However, such process is disadvantageous in that the properly stacked paper sheets may be disordered or damaged by the insertion of the thin plate. Further, when the thin guide plate is withdrawn, the inserted tape end may also be undesirably released from the constrained state sandwitched between the stacked paper sheets. Besides, in the hitherto known process, it was impossible or at least difficult to obtain a securely bound bundle of paper sheets, as a result of which some paper sheets may accidentally easily drop out of the bundle.